Couple deals with loss: Pull your boot straps up and start over again'

Wednesday

Dec 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 26, 2007 at 12:38 AM

An East Bloomfield couple tries to rebuild four months after losing their 200-year-old barn in a fire.

Stephanie Bergeron, staff writer

Moving on, making space and starting over.

That’s what the new year will bring for Christopher and April Wade.

It has been a tough year for the East Bloomfield couple. In addition to three deaths in the family, the Wades’ 200-year-old barn burned down behind their home on Hallock Road.

“That was a big chunk of our life we lost,” said April. “It’s really hard for my husband to look up there and see that barn gone.”

Lightning in an August thunderstorm ignited about 6,000 bales of hay in the wooden barn. The metal roof made the fire particularly difficult to get under control, and eventually crews had to take the barn apart to douse the flames. Now, four months later, the couple have plans to build a 40-by-60-foot metal barn in its place.

“We’re going to rebuild,” said Christopher. “It’s more or less we’re waiting now.”

During the waiting period, the couple have used a back room in their house to store feed for the horses. Their front porch is home to a barn cat and three kittens, and another room is a tool shed.

“We have all our critters in the house that should be in the barn,” said April.

It’s hard to keep inventory of everything that was burned in the fire. Among the losses were all the couple’s bales of hay, a saddle, horse blankets, cleaning tools, oat feed, wheat feed, an elevator and hay tools. Insurance will pay for the new barn to be built, but much of the equipment that the couple had had for years will be replaced on the Wades’ dime.

“We’re gradually buying stuff,” said April. “It’s very hard to remember what was in there until you go look for it.”

The horses that escaped the fire are doing well. The veterinarian said one of them, Sassy, got hit by lightning and suffered neurological damage. April said the horse now bobs her head from side to side and has lost some weight, but is otherwise OK. The other three horses weren’t hurt, but get shaken up whenever there is a thunderstorm.
The Wades have made a temporary lean-to barn for the horses, to serve until the new shelter is built.

Extra storage for hay has been offered up in neighbors’ barns. Some friends in Honeoye ground wheat for them, and their son hopes to do something special with the beams that were left over after the fire. A new weathervane is in the house, waiting to be put on top of the new barn.

The Wades aren’t resentful after their misfortune.

“It’s just one of those things that happened,” said Chris. “When you live on a hill, you’re going to have wind and you’re going to have lightning.”

The Wades just want to move on.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be a new beginning,” said April. “You just pull your boot straps up and start over again.”